


Guardian of Belief

by LeDiz



Series: The 48: Dreamworks [8]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen, Mostly silly, Unfinished, adapting to stuff, and the other guardians kinda, being friends with mortals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 18:05:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8023768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeDiz/pseuds/LeDiz
Summary: Jack mostly made the speech up off the top of his head, but it wasn't untrue - believers were guardians in their own way. As he got older, however, Jamie sometimes proved he wasn't the most uh... effective guardian.





	Guardian of Belief

Jack had called Jamie a guardian – a guardian of belief.

When the guardians asked him about it later, in between eggnog, fruitcake and sweets that made Tooth cringe even as she ate, Jack laughed and admitted he’d mostly made the entire speech up off the top of his head.

“But it’s not wrong, right?” he said playfully, perched on top of his staff where the elves couldn’t try stuffing his feet into shoes. “It’s all up to the kids to believe – that’s _their_ centre. So if I’m the guardian of fun, they’re guardians of belief.”

“Gumby’s got a point,” Bunny admitted, inclining his bottle toward Jack. “It’s their belief that keeps us strong. Keeps us safe. Sandy only came back because of that little ankle-biter.”

“If that’s not a guardian, I don’t know what is,” Tooth said, and raised her glass in a toast. “To the guardians of belief!”

North laughed and raised his mug, while Sandy lifted his cup with a broad grin. Jack wasn’t drinking, but he pumped his fist all the same. “Hear hear!”

In all honesty, as much as they laughed and cheered, they had thought that would probably be the end of it. They didn’t admit it, but with the long months of summer stretching out in front of them, they all suspected Jack would return to Burgess in November to find none of the kids remembered anything but an exciting dream.

In fact, when Jack casually mentioned he was going to be heading back, North made vaguely interested noises, waited for Jack to get bored and wander out of the workshop, and then immediately snatched a snowglobe to go find Bunny.

“You want me to what?” he demanded, pausing his digging to stare at him. “North, I’m in the middle of planting season. This is gonna be one of my biggest crops yet. I don’t have time to babysit Frost.”

“Is not babysitting. Is checking up on,” he said. “And you are least busy this time. Tooth and Sandy will be working, I have only two months to Christmas, and your crop can wait a few days while you make sure our new member is okay.”

“He won’t thank us for it,” he warned. “You mark me, North. Either everything’ll be fine and he’ll get mad at us for worrying, or it won’t be fine and he’ll be in no mood for company. You’re askin’ for trouble and putting me right in the middle of it.”

“Bunny. You cannot say you are not worried.”

He sighed and went back to his work for a few moments, thinking it over. If he was being honest, he would be a lot more comfortable knowing someone was looking out for the kid, but he’d have been a whole lot happier if it was anyone but himself to do it. He and Jack had buried a few hatchets, and their eternal arguments were more friendly banter than an actual rivalry, but that was at least partly built on the understanding that he left Jack’s numerous issues alone.

But he still went looking for him, the day after Burgess had its first snowfall of the new season.

He found him in Germany, torturing a harried-looking student by blowing his papers all over the park he’d been studying in.

“He deserves it,” Jack said in response to Bunny’s disapproving frown. He tapped a stray paper with his staff almost absently, freezing it to the ground. “Really. His girlfriend said so. More importantly, what are you doing here?”

Deciding to let the unrepentant naughtiness go for now, Bunny just folded his arms over his chest with a heavy breath. “How were things in Burgess?”

Jack blinked. “Burgess?”

“You went back yesterday, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but… are you… are you checking up on me?” he asked, surprisingly not defensive.

Bunny held out a hand anyway, both warning and keeping the thought at bay. “Only ’cause North told me to. I don’t care, myself, but the others were worried.”

“Oh.” Again, surprisingly, Jack only fell back a step, looking around at the ground before peeking up through his hair. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, well… how’d it go?”

For a moment, it looked like Jack didn’t know how to answer, before he suddenly huffed out a laugh that sounded more like a cough. But the smile it caused only grew as he continued glancing around the park, in search of something to focus on. By the time he settled back on Bunny, he almost seemed to be vibrating where he stood, hands flexing on his staff and feet rocking on the ground. “They um… they all… they still believe in me.”

It had been quiet, almost whispered, so Bunny flinched when Jack suddenly leapt into the air with a wild shout. “They believed in me!”

He leapt into the air a second time, doing a spin that would make an ice skater burn with jealousy before slamming his staff into the ground and balancing on the crook, using both hands to gesture at Bunny.

“I mean, it took a couple of them a few seconds, but Jamie reminded them and then they all remembered and they all saw me and it was like – like it always had been, like they’d always known! Jamie, Sophie, Clyde, Pippa, all of them! Eight kids, Bunny, _eight_ kids! All believing in me!”

Really, it was heartbreaking, and Bunny knew he would spend the next week hating everything about Jack’s life, but the kid just looked so thrilled… He laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Way to go, Frostbite! I knew those kids’d come through! Congratulations!”

“It was all Jamie! That kid, Bunny, he’s the greatest. And you wouldn’t believe the afternoon we had! We had so much fun! We played with snowballs, and we made a fort, and – and – and I’m gonna teach Cupcake to skate in December, and Jamie – He gave me this book! A book! He actually handed it to me. I _read_ it to Sophie. It was amazing. Bunny…” He dropped off the staff, only his lack of weight making it look natural as he held it with both hands and used it like a brace as he leaned toward him. “Bunny, it was amazing.”

That was the only warning he got before Jack crumpled down into a crouch, only kept from falling face-first into the concrete by his staff. Bunny barely had time to get down and grab the kid’s shoulders before Jack started hyperventilating, his eyes wide and shoulders heaving.

“Easy, Frost, come on, breathe with me, it’s okay. You’re right, Jack, come on, breathe,” Bunny ordered, and ducked his head to try and catch his gaze. “Jack. Jack, look at me.”

“It really happened. It really happened. It did happen, didn’t it?” he whispered, and Bunny swore under his breath, debating slapping him. Jack was clearly not home right now, and had probably been only holding it together for the last twelve hours or so by not thinking about it. Now he was thinking about it, and three hundred years’ worth of disbelief was hitting Jack like hot water on frostbite. The stupid wallaby put up a good show of being fine, but really Bunny knew he should have expected something like this.

He hesitated, then gently reached up and pried one of Jack’s hands from the staff so he could put it around his waist instead, and then pulled Jack into his side as he stood up. Then he opened a tunnel and pulled the kid into it, keeping him safe and secure until they came out the other side, at Jack’s lake.

As soon as he was released, Jack staggered away over the water, ice forming under his feet until he reached the very centre, where he collapsed with his elbows on his knees and face buried in his arms. Bunny stood uselessly on the edge of the lake, hating himself for letting go.

“Jack…”

Jack just lifted a hand, either forestalling the inevitable question or thanking him for the ride. Either way, Bunny ignored it.

“They’re gonna expect you now. Today. And every winter. But you keep showing up, I promise they’re gonna believe. And as long as they believe, they’ll look for you. They’ll see you.” He tried a smile. “That’ll keep ’em strong for all the times you’re not here. That makes them guardians, right? Guardians of belief?”

Jack shifted, unfolding his arms just long enough to pull his staff in close to his body, before going back to his huddle. Bunny frowned, but a quick glance up at the darkening sky told him he was quite possibly making things worse. He held up his hands in defeat and thumped twice for a tunnel.

“It’s a bit warm to get into the warren through the front way, right now, but you should head for the pole when you’re feeling up to it. Maybe after you give Jamie and the little ankle-biter a visit, ’ey?”

His hand rose off his arm, but it took a few false starts before it lifted into a proper wave. Bunny nodded quietly. “We’ll be waiting, kid,” he said gently, and jumped into the tunnel.

He didn’t show up at the pole, but he did make his way to the warren, lingering at the Easter Island entrance until Bunny noticed the smell of melting ice and found him. After Bunny finished lecturing him on what a stupid idea it was for a winter spirit to go to Easter Island in the middle of the day, Jack admitted he’d felt guilty over his little freak out.

“I mean, I blame you entirely,” Jack said casually, strolling on a ledge above the paint paths. “I was doing just fine until you came along and made me think about it, and I’m going to have to get you back for that. But I talked to Jamie, and he thought maybe I should explain what happened so you didn’t think me paying you back was actually some kind of cry for attention or something.”

He ignored Jack’s wandering by burying his hands back in the fields he was weeding. “Jamie did, huh?”

“I did talk to Jamie,” he said, but that was all he reiterated before continuing. “So here’s the thing: I kind of got used to kids not believing in me. I went to Burgess expecting Jamie to walk right through me. But he didn’t. He actually tackled me, instead, which is a really, really weird way to say hi to someone and I don’t think I like it, but whatever. And it turns out that he’s been reminding the other kids about everything all summer long. Apparently he’s been taking that whole guardian of belief thing kind of seriously.”

Bunny looked at him from under his brows, but didn’t admit he and the others had assumed the exact same thing. Jack was still strolling over the ledges high above, looking anywhere but down.

“So here’s what I’m thinking: I’m kind of a really lousy guy, asking kids to believe in me when I don’t believe in them,” he admitted. “What kind of person does that? What a jerk, right?”

Rather than answer that, Bunny focussed on his weeds. “You tell Jamie that?”

For a few moments, Jack didn’t say anything, just paced back and forth in silence. When Bunny looked up, Jack sucked in his bottom lip and shook his head, still refusing to meet his gaze.

“You’re a right wallaby, Frostbite, but you aren’t a total gumby,” he said, and smirked when that finally made Jack look at him.

“I understand more languages than I actually know the names of, and I still have no idea what you just said.”

“You aren’t a jerk. But even guardians of belief have moments of doubt in the face of overwhelming odds, and you aren’t a guardian of belief,” he pointed out. “There’re plenty of things you should feel bad about—ruining my egg hunts bein’ right up there—but this ain’t one of them.”

Jack gazed at him silently for a few moments, then managed a small smile and a smaller nod.

After that amazing start, to say that Jamie took the moniker of ‘guardian’ seriously would be along the same lines as saying North delivered a few toys in December. Even Jack, who would never hear a word against his first active believer, was a little awkward when he said Jamie was “…enthusiastic.”

Or, in Claude’s blunt words, “If I didn’t see Jack every winter, Jamie, I’d say you were certifiable.”

“Hey!”

“He’s got a point,” Pippa said as she slumped down beside him. It was a slow summer’s day, and Jamie was doing his part for the cause by already planning their winter adventures, and brought up the topic by wondering if Jack would fly them out to Michigan in search of Big Foot. “Most fourteen year olds don’t still write letters to Santa.”

“Yeah, but most fourteen year olds didn’t meet him six years ago,” he argued.

“Okay, let me say that a different way. Most fourteen year olds don’t go around telling other fourteen year olds they’re going to get on the naughty list,” she said. “You’re lucky Cupcake was there, or Lucas would’ve strung you up on the flagpole by your waistband.”

He scowled, both at the reminder of his bully and the fact he was regularly saved by a girl. “Like I care about Lucas Green. You guys still believe.”

“Yeah, but we don’t admit it in public any more,” Claude pointed out. “Dude, your mom says the only reason you’re not in therapy is because she thinks you’re doing it all for Sophie!”

“How do you know?” he asked, and he raised his eyebrows.

“How do I know? Because she asked my mom to get me and Caleb to rat on you! Seriously, man, you gotta tone down the flag waving or they’re gonna lock you up in the nuthouse!”

“But they’re real, and they need belief!” he insisted. “They’re relying on us!”

Pippa sighed and nudged him gently. “Maybe so. But I don’t think they’d be happy to hear you believed you way into everyone thinking you’re crazy.”

As it happened, Jack wouldn’t have been happy, but by the time he found out, Jamie had already found a whole new, and no less enthusiastic, system of defensive belief.

“Cryptid seekers?” Jack read off the brochure Jamie had shoved at him. “Like people who go searching for mythological creatures?”

“Like Big Foot, and the Loch Ness Monster, and ice elves!”

Jack raised an eyebrow at that. “Ice… elves?”

“Yeah! Like you!”

“Jamie –”

“Whatever, it’s something to convince my mom I’m not crazy, and also a really good reason to go around telling people about you and the other guardians!” he said, and shoved up beside Jack to point at different parts of the brochure. “This group is all about tracking down myths and legends, and telling people all about them! They have this whole program, and there’s even a college degree in it, so mom’s like, totally into it, because she thinks it’s me thinking about the future and stuff!”

Jack didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he kept reading the brochure. “Have they ever actually found anything?”

“No, but that’s why you’re going to come on camp with me.”

Jack blinked and looked up. “I’m doing what and why?”

“There’s a camp over spring break, where they take all the teenage members into the mountains and learn survival or teamwork or something stupid like that,” he said, flipping the brochure to show the back page, which did in fact advertise a teenage retreat to teach their younger members ‘life skills’. “It’s totally the perfect place for me and whole bunch of other kids to ‘discover’ you! Right?”

Jack stared at Jamie’s manic grin a little warily. When he told the other guardians about it later, they vocalised all the reasons he thought of to say no to the whole stupid idea. Loudly. Repeatedly. And with great authority. Even Sandy said it was horrible idea.

So Jack went back to Jamie and asked when he should show up and where.

 

* * *

 

Jamie might have considered himself a guardian of belief, but if anything became clear over the course of the cryptid camp, it was that he was most certainly not a guardian of guardians.

“Oh, come on, Jack, I said I was sorry!” he wailed, but Jack’s only response was a bolt of ice that very nearly froze Jamie’s sneakers to the grass. “Would you please come out of the tree so we can talk about this?”

His aim was a little better this time, and Jamie grunted as he was crushed under a snowball the size of his head.

“It was just a movie!”

“ _Just_ a _movie_?” Jack swung his staff hard, and Jamie squeaked as he had to duck a barrage of slushy snowballs. “Try two lousy movies! With me as a mutant serial killing snowman! And _that’s_ what you use to introduce people to the idea I exist?! Even the stupid romance was better than that! The kids’ movie where I spend my time trying to steal a hat from _Frosty_ would have been better!”

“In hindsight, yeah,” he agreed, peeking out from under his hands. At least Jack had turned to face him, which was better than the hour he’d spent sulking on a branch that hung over a cliff, where Jamie could barely see him, let alone get to him. “But we’re teenagers. We kind of go for the slasher thing. And it was kind of hilarious.”

At the worst possible time, one of the boys sand, loudly and off-key, “Jack Frost nipping at your nose!”, causing several girls to shriek. Jack leaned on his staff and raised his eyebrows at Jamie in silent accusation.

He shrank back a little. “You’re going to freeze our pipes tonight, aren’t you?”

“In every cabin in this camp,” he informed him.

Even though he came through on his promise, the teenagers seemed to find it funny, all things considered, and Jamie admitted he deserved it, so Jack was back in good spirits by the next day, and went with the kids on their nature hike.

“Nature hike of course meaning walk on a manufactured trail,” Jack noted when they stopped to inspect ‘chupacobra’ tracks. “Also, that chupacobra has feet that look a lot like possum claws.”

“There’s gotta be something out here,” Jamie muttered, and the kids around him nodded wearily. They were all bored and struggling to keep their enthusiasm in the face of the guide’s obvious lack of belief. He looked at Jack meaningfully. “Elves? Pixies? Anything?”

“Hey, come on, I don’t know where you got this idea of me being an elf from, but the closest I’ve got to a summon for fairies is knocking out a tooth.”

Jamie sighed, but whatever he’d been about to say was cut off by a sharp yell, followed by a thump and then a pained yelp. Jack frowned and jumped over Jamie’s head, flying ahead while the kids hurried after. He soon found one of the guys hunched over near the cliff edge, holding his ankle and breathing sharply.

“Ooh, nasty sprain,” Jack hissed, dropping down beside him. He glanced at the kid, then reached out and gently wrapped his hand over the twisted joint, cooling it while he checked to make sure it really was just a sprain.

The guy gasped, looking around with wide eyes, but he was soon distracted by the arrival of the others, and Jack had to let go to get out of the way, where he wouldn’t be stepped in. He dropped down beside Jamie with a worried frown. “We’re a long way from camp for a guy with a bad ankle.”

“Is Greg okay?” he asked quietly, and Jack nodded.

“He’ll be limping around a bit, but he’ll be fine. He’s just gonna be in a lot of pain until we get back to the cabin,” he said, and Jamie grimaced, then tapped his hand into his fist.

“It’d help if he had a crutch, though, right? Or a walking stick?”

“Well, yeah, but contrary to what movies tell you, Jamie, sticks like that don’t usually just…” He stopped, then looked at Jamie sideways, who grinned back. Jack glared. “No.”

“Oh, come on. It’d help. You always want to help.”

“I don’t just hang onto this for the aesthetics, you know,” he snapped. “It’s a bit more important than that.”

Again, Jamie’s retort was cut off by a sharp yell from Greg, and Jack winced, then sighed loudly and held out his staff. “I want it back the second he hits camp, you hear me? And he better hear the real story of Jack Frost before this trip is over.”

“The whole winter shepherd deal, you got it,” he promised, and grabbed the staff in both hands. The moment Jack let go, the ice melted away, and Jamie grinned, hurrying over to his new friend.

“I just found it, it’s perfect to help you walk, right?”

“Hey, yeah! Thanks, Jamie. Wow, would you look at this thing? It looks like something out of Nightmare Before Christmas!”

Jack looked around sharply, not entirely sure how to take that, but the kids were already gathering in close, excited by the find.

“It looks like a real wizard’s staff!”

“I bet it’s magic!”

“Maybe these woods do have something in them after all!”

Jack paused, then smiled and relaxed slightly, settling back on his hips. Sure, it wasn’t believing in _him_ , but it was still encouraging to hear people believing in something. He hadn’t even been sure they would be able to see his staff, but, after three hundred years of thinking it was the source of his magic, he was slowly beginning to learn it was, at most, a conduit.

He was almost okay with the whole situation when Greg started to get up, bracing the staff on the edge of the cliff and leaning on it. Seeing how close he was to the edge, Jack frowned warily, but didn’t have time to more than gesture to Jamie before the inevitable happened.

The rocks shifted, and the staff dropped off the edge.

“No!”

The wind tried to help, shoving its way up the cliff, but all it accomplished was knocking Greg back down hard, and his fingers slipped from the staff in surprise. It slid over the edge.

“No, no, no!” Jamie cried, while the kids rushed around Greg to see if he was okay and Jack sprinted to the edge of the cliff, fingers digging into the dirt as he stared down the ravine. He didn’t hurt deep in his soul, so he knew the staff was still in one piece, but he couldn’t see it, either. He gaped up at Jamie, who stared back, equally horrified.

“So much for that idea,” one of the girls sighed. “Good thought, though, Jamie.”

“Alright, guys, this place is clearly dangerous,” the guide called, and pointed for them to go back. “Let’s get back to the path before you all take the same tumble. Greg, I’m coming to help you; just stay where you are. Jamie, I said _get back_.”

“But…”

“Now, Jamie.”

He cringed, looking at Jack again, who clenched his jaw and swung over the cliff edge, thankful for his light weight as he clung to the face. “Go on. I’ll find it.”

“I am so sorry,” he whispered.

“Not as sorry as you’re gonna be,” he promised with an evil grin, then let himself drop out of sight. Assuming he could find his staff before the kids went home in a few days, he decided, he was going to freeze every sheet Jamie and Greg touched.

Luckily, it only took until a little after midnight for him to find it at the bottom of a pile of leaves. Unluckily, he couldn’t fly without his staff, and agility aside, he wasn’t the strongest spirit in the world. Climbing down and then searching had covered him in scratches and bruises, not only twisted his ankle (worse than Greg’s, no less) but also strained both his wrists.

Icing his staff helped his frustration a little, and soothed his rock-burned hands, but he still slammed it into the ground and called on a freak snowstorm to rival ’68.

Jamie had been smart enough to wait up for him, and looked suitably contrite when Jack appeared at the cabin window. “I am so, so sorry,” he insisted, hurrying to open the door. “You’re not going to bury us or go on a icicle-stabbing rampage, are you?”

Mentioning the movie was not his brightest move, and Jack swung his ice-encrusted staff around to point directly at Jamie’s nose. “I’m _thinking_.”

“I’m really, really, really sorry, Jack!” he whispered. “You’re totally right to be angry! Just tell me what I can do to make it up to you! You – oh, wow, you’re hurt. Here, come in and sit down, I’ll go get the first aid kit, and –”

“Jamie.”

He stopped, hunching down in his shoulders, and looked so upset that Jack almost, _almost_ , forgave him. He had been going to tell him to just go to bed, and that if he didn’t spend the entire day tomorrow starting snowball fights and sledding, followed by amazing stories of the legendary Jack Frost, Jack really would bury them, but the horrible look of guilt on Jamie’s face stopped him.

He jiggled his arm, considering, then huffed out a breath and swung his staff back and over his shoulder. “How’s Greg?”

“Better,” he said quietly. “I mean, he was really sore after the hike, and spent like an hour in the nurse’s station, but he seemed okay at dinner.”

Jack nodded once, then turned and walked back off the porch, making Jamie flinch and hurry out after him.

“What are you doing? It’s storming out there and –”

He turned and raised a blunt eyebrow, making Jamie wince. “Oh, right. _You’re_ storming.” He paused, then flinched again. “You’re not storming out, are you? You can’t leave! I haven’t told the guys about you yet!”

“Chill out, Jamie,” he said, unable to completely keep the annoyance from his tone. “I’m just gonna sit in a snowbank and heal up. _You_ are going to sleep, so you’re all bright eyed and bushy-tailed for a day of sledding, snowballs, snowforts, and stories about the amazing Jack Frost, who doesn’t stab people, who isn’t an old man, and who doesn’t carry a paintbrush, but is awesome personified that everyone, no matter what age, should believe in. Got it?”

“Absolutely!”

To Jamie’s credit, he did instigate an incredible snow war the next morning, with forts and everything, and Jack managed to forget to be upset with him, focussed on the kids’ utter joy with a snowday so late in the year. He did make sure Jamie’s team lost the snowball fight, but that was about as far as his vindictiveness went – he’d used up most of his anger and energy with the snowstorm.

Unfortunately, the kids were called in for some kind of craftsy lesson after lunch, but Jamie was still feeling justifiably bad. He ushered Jack into the dorm room and apologised in hurried whispers.

“I still want to make it up to you. If you want, I can ditch this afternoon and we can go play some more –”

“Hey, hey, Jamie, calm down, it’s cool,” Jack said, lifting the hand not on his staff to forestall him. “Really. Go do macramé, or make glittery pictures of sasquatch, or whatever it is you campers do. I need to ice your sheets, anyway.”

Jamie blinked, and Jack snickered. “I’m kidding, Jamie. I wouldn’t tell you if I was going to do that.”

“Oh. Right. Y- hey.”

“Go, Jamie,” he said, and pushed him toward the door. He was so busy smirking that it wasn’t until Jamie shut the front door of the cabin behind himself that he realised where he was. And that there were no open windows. He frowned and flitted around the cabin, checking everything, but the whole place was properly insulated and sealed. Not even a crack in the floorboards. He was stuck. “Oh, come _on_!”

Muttering about his own stupidity, Jack took revenge by actually icing up Jamie’s sheets, and then pawed through the kids’ stuff in search of something to do for the rest of the afternoon. It took a while and no less than four backpacks, but he finally found a book that wasn’t about myths or fantasy and flopped down on one of the bunks, content to immerse himself in some poorly written teenage sci-fi for the afternoon.

Over the centuries, he’d become quite the quick reader, so he was almost finished by the time the door opened. Checking the number of pages he had left, he decided he wanted to finish more than he wanted fresh air, and so didn’t immediately jump up to greet his believer, or even look up until the dorm door shut on the sounds of the laughing teenagers in the common room.

He frowned at the two kids standing by the door, trying to remember their names. Daniel and… Emma? Emily? Whatever, they were looking at each other weirdly.

Then Emma-Emily-Whatever made a big show of shivering. “It’s really cold in here.”

Daniel chuckled, and Jack rolled his eyes. Was it his fault if he’d been left alone to make his own temperature? But then he noticed how Daniel leaned in, pressing Emma-Emily-Whatever against the door. “Maybe I can warm you up a little.”

“No!” Jack snapped, sitting up and pointing his staff at them. “No, you are not doing that!”

But he was unheard and unseen, and the kids started kissing anyway. Jack dropped the temperature a little. “You guys are way too young for this! And I do not want to see it! St- hey! Come on, Daniel, moving a little fast, aren’t you?” he yelped, but went unheeded as Daniel continued to undo Emma-Emily-Whatever’s buttons. Worse, she didn’t seem to mind, because she pushed her hands up under his jacket. Jack leapt off the bed, debating making it snow to cool them down, but the muffled sounds of the kids outside caught his attention first. “ _JAMIE_!”

There was no response, and Jack rushed over to the connecting wall to slam his fist against it. “JAMIE BENNET! You have an incredible, undeniable urge to get something out of your bag right now! Jamie!”

His fist did make sound against the wall, and the two kids paused, but then giggled and went right back to what they were doing. Outside, Jack could hear the kids laughing. One of them made a joke about Evelyn—her name was Evelyn?—getting a bit too excited.

Another asked Jamie what he was doing. Whatever he said in response was lost under the laughter, and another shout. “Yeah right! Never picked you for a voyeur, Jamie!”

Jack groaned and beat his head against the wall. Never before had he wanted Tooth’s ability to go through walls as much as he did right now.

He risked a glance at the pair. Daniel was down to a T-shirt, and Evelyn looked like she was doing her best to taste his tonsils. Jack buried his face in the wall again. “Give me back the 1950s. Innocent kids that didn’t do this stuff. Freeze time. Please let me suddenly discover the ability to freeze time. Anything to stop this. Please.”

The sad thing was, this wasn’t the first time this had happened, so he really should have known better to get into a situation like this. Every time he investigated a log cabin in the woods, or some run-down old shack, or anything that could be shelter in a storm, some excitable couple would stumble their way in after him, shut the door behind themselves, and then, after much blushing and false-starts, end up warming themselves up the not-so-old-fashioned way.

Sometimes he felt like he and his season did more for resolving unresolved sexual tension than Cupid.

His eyes fell back on the bags he’d recently pawed through, and widened at the sight of a music player. “Salvation,” he whispered, and snatched it up.

Jamie found him an hour later, headphones on and blaring loudly enough that Jamie knew he was listening to angsty rock, facing the wall and determined to be lost in his book. Rather than startle him, Jamie silently sat down to face him, and waited for him to notice him.

The glare he got almost made him get up again, but he stayed where he was as Jack lowered the ear phones.

“So being a mythical being doesn’t let you go through solid objects, huh?” he asked weakly.

 “I want you to think long and hard about this one, buddy,” he said coolly. “How does the cold get into a house?”

He winced. “Cracked doors and windows.”

“How do I get into your room at home?”

He shrank where he sat. “I leave the window open.”

“Have you ever seen me work a doorhandle?”

“I didn’t know they were going to do that.”

“Mmhm.” He sighed and pulled off the headphones properly, then held them out for Jamie to take. “Your generation has horrible taste in music, but it’s good noise. I’m also stealing this book,” he added, holding up his latest distraction. It was about space-pirates and had more plotholes than wormholes, but he wanted to know how it ended. “Open the window.”

“Okay,” he said meekly, and led the way over to the window. He pushed it open, and was about to stop Jack and apologise when one of the other campers poked his head into the dorm room, grinning broadly.

“Hey, we’re putting on another movie! What are you doing in here, Jamie?”

“Uh, letting Jack Frost clear out the air in here,” he said, and Jack snorted, clambering up onto the sill.

“Jack Frost, huh? You mention him a lot – you’re really into him, huh?”

Jack hesitated, glancing down at Jamie for a moment and feeling almost guilty. Jamie hadn’t known Daniel and Evelyn were going to commandeer the dorm, and he couldn’t blame the kid for knowing about Jack’s issue with doorhandles. He could interact with pretty much everything else, after all. And it wasn’t like he’d known Greg would drop his staff, or that the movie would be that insulting…

“What’s not to be into?” Jamie muttered. “He brings all the fun of winter, he can fly, he can do loads of cool stuff.”

“Yeah, when you put it like that… Well, whatever. Come on, already.”

Jamie glanced up at Jack, who managed a weak smile, then nodded once and slipped out the window again. He would stick around the campsite, but he wasn’t going unfreeze Jamie’s sheets.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The 48 are a collection of unfinished or pointless fics saved to my hard drive, now posted on Ao3 for people's interest or in case they want to adopt them.
> 
> I have a strange relationship with this fic. It's one of the RotG fics that I always grimace when I think about it, but when I read over it, I end up enjoying it, but I have no idea where it was going. Maybe someone else will know.


End file.
